Uncanny Magnetism
by sublimesubtleties
Summary: Sakura is having eye problems, and Uchiha is the reason. A seal he has placed on her has rendered them inseparable - practically one. ItaSaku with a slice of Kisame on the side .
1. Chapter 1

**Uncanny Magnetism**

_Chapter One_

**Disclaimer**: Naruto completely belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, the amazing author who has not yet died from exhaustion of writing almost more than half a k of episodes.

VVVVVV

_"Shit, that was close!"_ I noted mentally as I quickly snapped my head to the left. Kisame's Samehada swished past my ear, snagging a few strands of my pink hair and yanking them from my scalp. His live sword had unraveled a few moments into our battle, revealing a quivering mass of razor sharp scales and a hungry mouth with equally sharp teeth at the end.

"You gave me some split ends, you piece of fish ass!" I spat at him, dodging another swing, hearing the scales shivering on Samehada. He was backing me into a corner, and quick. I was sweating profusely––like a pig––and I certainly was not Ino. Kisame on the other hand was swinging his chakra-sucking machine almost effortlessly.

"Ouch," Kisame grinned, feigning hurt from my insult and gave his trophy another loud swing. I was eating up chakra like a starved dog trying to match the diameter of Samehada's swing with each jump I took backwards. He swung again, but in quick thinking I ducked at the last minute to conserve the measly portion of chakra I had left. This caught Kisame off guard. He looked back at my crouching form while he was in mid-air. I seized the opportunity to gather chakra into my fist, pouncing off the branch using the small amount of momentum I gained after ducking.

"Fucking fish!" My fist cracked on his jaw with enough chakra to knock him out, but not shatter his entire skull. I landed on the forest floor a couple meters from his collapsed body, feet crunching on the browned leaves of autumn. I allowed a few moments to pass before approaching his fallen figure, cautious and aware of his consciousness. I stopped in my tracks as he stirred. Kisame got on his elbows, grinning at me with his perfect rows of teeth. I took a step backwards, but the instant I did, he was behind me breathing onto my neck.

"You have quite a colorful variety of vocabulary for a pretty little kunoichi." I made to turn around and lay another chakra-infused fist onto the other side of his face when he caught my arm.

"Fuck you," I hissed. His grip was hard and I was running out of chakra. Taijutsu wasn't my specialty, but my fate had already been decided the moment I realized I had just wasted all of my chakra trying to escape the swinging Samehada _and _inflict a useless blow to the jaw of my now captor.

"By the way, little shit, sharks are made of cartilage," his grin grew wider on his face which had unfortunately been unharmed by my weakened blow. He tapped his sword on my side and I felt what was left of my chakra disappear with a '_whoosh_'.

"Well, fuck," I muttered, not making an effort to escape from his grasp. His eyes looked hungry and I could hear the saliva gurgling behind his clenched teeth each time he exhaled.

"'Well, fuck' is right, sweetcheeks." He wrenched my arms behind my back, tying the strings a bit too taut. I could almost feel the rope burn that would appear after a couple hours of chafing. That is _if_ I decided to be stupid and struggle. I stayed still and decided to mutter another curse word under my breath. He found pleasure in taking his time tying my ankles together. I could swear the saliva was dripping out from the crevices of his teeth at this time. I groaned as I felt the lukewarm liquid fall onto my sandals and seep in between my toes, feeling my blood pressure about to pop. I was frustrated because one: I was chakra-less, two: I was stuck with a man-fish, and three: I was _fucking_ chakra-less. I fumed, my face burning up as my eyes bore into his beady, dark ones.

"If I could, I would eat you alive right now if you weren't so sexy," he chuckled, throwing me over his shoulder. I grit my teeth together, unable to move or do anything because again, I was _fucking chakra-less_.

"You're being quite cooperative," He smirked.

"Fuck you," I cursed at him again. It was the only weapon I had left against him.

"Sorry pinky, these were orders." By this time, he was jumping swiftly from tree to tree. In fact, his speed was probably a meter faster than mine at most. The sun was beginning to set, I could feel my lids drooping from being devoid of chakra. I was too exhausted to worry about Samehada which was next to me, constantly eating up any ounce of new chakra being formed. My body eventually gave up creating more chakra, other than the bit I needed to keep me alive. I felt myself give in and fall asleep on Kisame's shoulder.

VVVVVV

"Oi, kunoichi," I felt a hand shaking my shoulder, "wake up." I moaned, rolling onto my stomach. It was way too early.

"No…" I moaned a bit more, my joints feeling stiff. Another hand grabbed my opposite shoulder, turning me over and yanking me up into sitting position.

"Get up." The voice was adamant. I cracked open my eyes a sliver, feeling the bright sunlight flood into my pupils. I groaned, my eyes blinded temporarily. I rubbed them as they adjusted, making out the figure of Hoshigake Kisame in the light.

"Fine, fish ass," I hissed at him, brushing his clammy hands off my shoulders. I preoccupied myself by picking out a few leaves that had made their way into my unruly hair during the time I was knocked out cold.

"Still cute with morning breath, eh?" Kisame was kneeling in front of me, watching me groom myself the best I could.

"Shut the fuck up," I glared at him, throwing a fistful of dry leaves into his face. I stretched, feeling my joints happily crack. I felt a spark: my chakra was buzzing, renewed. I smirked at him, ready to throw a fully charged fist into his grinning face.

"You don't want to do that, sweetheart." He reached back and curled his fingers around Samehada as well as grappling my flying fist with his death grip simultaneously. I scowled, giving up, not wanting to be sucked dry of my chakra again. I unwillingly stood, wiping the dirt that had caked onto my face during my slumber with the bottom of my shirt, and followed behind him to our unknown destination.

"Where the fuck are we going?" I dragged my tired feet through the sea of colored leaves. I was walking slowly, shoulders hunched over, eyes half opened and mind still not fully awake.

"That's for me to know and you to find out," Kisame was meters ahead of me, "hurry up, little shit," he looked back over his shoulder at me and I gave him the finger. I unwillingly trudged towards him who had kindly stopped to wait for me to catch up. We walked in silence until my stomach decided to interrupt by growling loudly.

"I'm hungry," I complained, holding my protesting stomach. Kisame didn't reply, continuing in silence with only the sound of his feet shuffling through the leaves. I huffed, muttering, '_rude_,' under my breath, thinking of more ways to annoy him.

"What time is it?" He ignored me.

"Why are we walking instead of running?" Another moment of silence.

"Why is there mist?" I could see his shoulders hitch, clearly annoyed.

"Are we there-"

"Shut the fuck up, kunoichi! You know what?" Kisame pulled out his sword and poked it forcefully into my stomach. I could feel the familiar rush again as Samehada happily devoured all but the necessary amount of chakra to keep me alive.

"Fuck." My arms dropped to my side. I didn't expect him to do that.

"You are getting hella annoying." He decided that tying me up was the best option, pulling the ropes even tighter than last time in his frustration. Even worse, he chose to knock me out cold as well.

VVVVVV

_"Hn, so you managed to bring her back in one piece," _I was hearing, yet not hearing at the same time. My head was spinning and I could not open my eyes to see who the muddled voice belonged to.

_"Wasn't easy, it was tempting," _A low gravelly voice spoke: It was Kisame. I tried to open my eyes, but my lids were heavy. My body felt so weak and I was unsure whether or not my chakra had returned, yet. Perhaps, they had somehow supressed my chakra; I doubt that Kisame would let me have any of it in my possession.

_"She's stirring,"_ The first voice notified Kisame, "Let her." There was a rustle like the sound of someone holding out a sleeved arm to stop another person. The voice was becoming clearer as the clouds in my mind dissipated. When I opened my eyes, my vision was blurred.

"I can't see…" The words slurred from my tongue which was still slack from unconsciousness.

"I see you're awake, Haruno." I couldn't make out the face of my captor, but realized who he was once I saw the crimson eyes.

"Uchiha-san, I demand an explanation." I squinted my eyes, desperately attempting to focus my sight. To his right, a blurred blue figure stood: Kisame.

"She's all yours, Itachi," Kisame waved and left the room. I sat on the bed clenching the sheets, unwary that Itachi had come closer to bend down and look me in the eyes for inspection.

"Hn," He was amused. He straightened back up only to loom over me again, "I've placed a curse seal on you. We're connected," His voice was monotonous, muffled, boring.

"W-What?" I tried to stand, only to fall to the ground due to my failing eyesight and weak limbs.

"Whatever condition I am suffering, you suffer as well."

"So, your eyesight has deteriorated this much?" I questioned. I slowly pulled myself up enough to lean back on the cold, metal support of the bed. He avoided my question.

"You are to stay here in this room and may only leave with my permission. Is that understood, Haruno?"

"I don't even know why I'm here!" I shouted at him, retaliating by not answering his question either.

"You only have one purpose now: To seek a cure for my eye condition. The longer you put off this task, the further my _and_ your eyesight will deteriorate, rendering both of us blind. Is that understood, Haruno?" I was reluctant to answer, I wanted so terribly to bite my tongue and lash out at him instead. However, after hearing the consequences of not obeying, I realized that I had no choice. I held my breath––Itachi had certainly thought this through fairly well. As long as I was going to lose something precious to me, I would have to work to save it, thus saving him as well.

"Fine. I'll do it. But, what resources will I be provided with?"

"In exchange, I have had medical tomes on optics set out in braille for you. I am sure you have familiarized yourself with such, I assume?" I sighed. He was right, I could read braille having worked with a few blind at the Konoha hospital.

"I need to use the restroom, Uchiha-san," I requested politely.

"No, you may not."

"Well, fuck."

VVVVVV

**A/N 4/1/12**: It's been a good four years since I first stumbled upon fanfiction and fell in love. This is also that first fanfiction I have started since then. I want to thank all of the lovely writers out there who have inspired me and incited new ideas for a new pairing. To those who have favorited me as an author, thank you so so much. I absolutely do not deserve it since I have been so terrible at updating. I hope you enjoy this new story, and I pray that it will turn out well. I am also assuming my medical terms will improve as I am starting premed in college this fall.


	2. Chapter 2

**Uncanny Magnetism**

_Chapter Two_

VVVVVV

I was rudely woken up by a stack of massive medical tomes which had been dropped onto my stomach. An extremely pale man with white hair was standing beside my bed. Itachi was still asleep at the other side of the dim room; it was very early in the morning.

"What the fuck?" I asked carelessly, mind still clouded with sleep. His chakra signature was spiking in the air; he was clearly peeved at the lack of care in my words.

"Who the fuck do you think you are speaking to me like that, you blind hag?" He spoke as if he were expecting me to treat him as if he were blessed with an apotheosis of some sort. I scoffed as I turned around to lay on my stomach. As I shifted my position, the heavy books were knocked over onto the stone ground. When they fell loudly, a cloud of dust rose up into the man's face, resulting in a fit of angry coughs. I smirked into my pillow, ready to fall back to sleep when he turned me over and lifted me out of bed. While I was suspended in the air, feet inches from the ground, Itachi began to stir.

"You fucking get started with reading these damn books or else _I_ suffer the consequences by the other _fucking_ blind bat sleeping over there," He hissed though his clenched teeth, keeping his volume low. He glanced over at Itachi who seemed to be settling back into sleep again.

"He can't even see, how the _fuck_ is he going to be able to use his mangekyou? In fact, he can barely even use his stupid sharingan, you idiot!" I huffed.

"Shut the fuck up you fucking piece of pin-"

"Then get to work, Haruno," A bored voice came from behind the white man. Itachi had his head propped up with one arm looking unamused; the ruckus we created must have woken him up.

"Get to work, _Haruno,_" The man repeated in my face in a mocking tone.

"Hidan, you may leave," Itachi spoke to the man. Hidan, the white man, grumbled, tossing me to the floor and trudged out. The door slammed shut, dust becoming airborne from the force. I groaned and collected the heavy books which lay scattered beside my bed.

_"_**_Great_**_. I'm stuck in a room with a fucking emotionless motherfucking thing of mindfuck and his stupid crunchy team mates and-"_

"Your thoughts are rather loud, Haruno," I heard Itachi smirk.

"...What?" I questioned, my head turning slowly towards him in disbelief. I realized, feeling a pang of stupidity hit me in the middle of my huge ass forehead (which I had grown nicely into, by the way): We were connected. Mind and body. I shivered, getting off the cold ground with arms full of books and headed towards the desk which Itachi had kindly provided just for my studying purposes. I began to shove my thoughts into the deep recesses of my mind, replacing them with newfound information as I began gliding my fingers over the pages. I paused every few moments to jot down notes. In the middle of one of my sentences, I dropped my pen.

_"Wait...I can still 'see'," _I thought in disbelief. I was unconsciously using the small amount of chakra I had, using my "medic eyes". My hand hovered over my notes as I read them with my chakra; it was surprisingly legible.

"How?" Itachi questioned. My shoulders hitched as I turned towards him again.

"Stop fucking listening to my thoughts, Uchiha-san."

"Excuse me?"

"...Please," I interjected quickly. I turned back to my book after Itachi had silenced himself. I still felt his eyes on me, watching me blindly read the pages and scribble down more notes. As I continued on, I began to hum to drown out the drone of the dead silence in the room. I paused as I reached a new chapter in the book.

"Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan…" I unknowingly said aloud in a hushed whisper. This seemed to catch Itachi's attention. There was a rustling of sheets behind me as he sat up in his bed.

"Brief me," He demanded. His voice was interested and a little less monotonous than usual.

"The technique is of no use to us."

I continued flipping through the pages, frowning at the abhorrent details of the procedures to gain the eternal eye. The process required the sharingan user to receive a transplant of a set of mangekyou eyes from a close relative. Sasuke couldn't have possibly gained his mangekyou yet, nor was there anyone else I knew of who possessed it besides Kakashi.

"I don't believe I need to brief you, considering you already have complete access to-" I cleared my throat and corrected myself, "excuse me, I meant intrusion into my mind."

"Not exactly," His voice was dull again. I stopped sliding my fingers across the braille, experiencing an 'a-ha!' moment. I turned around smirking at him. Though I could barely make out the details of his face, I could tell he was holding back a scowl.

"You can't read everything in my mind, can you?"

"Hn." He lay back down on his bed, arms folded behind his head. I could tell where Sasuke had gotten his silent temper from.

"So as long as I don't actively think out loud in my mind…" I tapped my chin. It seemed that the seal only connected us to a certain extent. I was fucking brilliant. Suppressing my active thoughts would be hard with my annoying tendency to talk to myself in my mind, but it was definitely possible. Itachi's mind was like a mute––he rarely ever thought to himself.

_"Fucking passive dunce"_ I thought out loud in my mind. He turned his head towards me.

_"Blind weasel with a huge log up his ass." _I could hear his teeth grinding together.

_"You should do some soul-searching, maybe you'll find one you-"_

_"Shut up, Haruno,"_ Itachi finally retorted out loud in his mind as he sat up on his bed and threw on a shirt. As I turned back with a smirk on my face to start reading a new chapter, he left the room, giving the door a crisp slam.

VVVVVV

I had fallen asleep a few hours after Itachi had left the room. I yawned and wiped the saliva off of my cheek with the back of my hand. During my nap, the braille I had slept on left imprints on my face. My hair was getting a bit dirty having not washed for a couple days. I sniffed it and grimaced.

"Here." A towel and toothbrush were tossed on top of the saliva-saturated pages. I turned around in my seat; Itachi had come back into the room some time during my nap. He motioned with his head to follow him out the door. As I stood up, feeling began rushing back into my legs after sitting for an extended amount of time. The air of the hallway was cool, clearing up my mind as I followed the sound of Itachi's soft footsteps. We walked into a bathroom which was brightly lit compared to the dim hall and room. He motioned towards the shoji screen. I walked behind it and to my delight, a steaming hot tub of water had been drawn for me. I began to take off my sticky clothes when I saw Itachi's shadow through the screen.

"Well?"

"What, Haruno?"

"Are you going to leave? Or-"

"No." I sighed, peeling off my clothes nonetheless.

"Don't be a peeping Tom," I warned him as I stepped into the tub.

"I can only see as much as you can, Haruno." _Right_. I thought again, remembering that both of our eyes were deteriorating at a fairly fast rate. I stared at his shadow through the screen; he was standing as still as bamboo. As I was about to close my eyes, a blue hand reached around the screen and took my dirty clothes.

"Hey!" I reached my arm out of the tub and slapped Kisame's hand.

"You're a little shit." He took my clothes and replaced them with a new black set. I let out a sigh of relief inside.

"And you're the toilet paper that wipes it," I retorted.

"Ouch," he chuckled, "a little feisty today?" He stuck his head in.

"Fuck off, fish!" I jumped in the tub, covering myself the best I could. Water splashed out onto the tiles.

"You have quite the foul mouth for such a pretty girl," He winked at me and disappeared out the bathroom door. Itachi was still standing in the same spot. Unlike the two other Akatsuki members I had met so far, Itachi was practically a mute in comparison. He only spoke when he thought necessary, and like Sasuke, he often resorted to a short, 'hn,' as a quick response.

"I believe I have gathered enough information on the base of the mangekyou to start examining your eyes. So, we can start as soon as possible." I dried myself off, placing the towel on a rack. He replied with a, 'hn,' and walked out the door.

VVVVVV

"Stop resisting, or I'll knock you out," I huffed, frustrated as Itachi kept pushing his chakra against mine. My hands stopped glowing when I pulled them away from his eyes. I pulled my damp hair up into a bun, rubbed my hands together and placed them back over his eyes.

"Alright, let's try this again."

I eased my chakra into his eyes once more as he sat with his body rigid and hands resting at the edge of his cot. He resisted a little, but finally relaxed his chakra slowly and reluctantly. I shifted to get closer, closing my own eyes and 'seeing' with my chakra. As my chakra passed through the lens to reach the depths of his eyes, I could see the worn out neurons. I assumed that whenever he strained his eyes over using his sharingan, he had fried a couple of the neurons, rendering the synapses connecting them useless. I searched deeper, pushing my chakra into his optic nerve. All three meningeal layers were damaged. I retracted my chakra and opened my eyes, staring back into his crimson ones.

"Tell me," he demanded. I realized we were dangerously close. Some time during the process, I had inched my way to the edge of my chair; I managed to shuffle my way between his legs while I was examining his eyes. I sat back properly in my chair, folding my hands uncomfortably on my lap.

"Well," I paused, regaining my posture, "the retina should be simple to fix. Your, I mean _our_ eyes should be able to reflect light better once I repair the neurons and the synapses are able to work properly again. The optic nerve is another story, however. The fibre tracks of the nervous system are...let's say, quite difficult to repair. If it keeps deteriorating however, we will only be left with light perception." I avoided saying that fibre track damage was irreversible because they aren't quite capable of regeneration.

"Hn," He said again, seemingly indifferent.

"If you would like, we can start treatment tomorrow."

I slid my chair back and stood up. As I turned around to walk away, I felt his hand wrap around my wrist.

"Do it now," He said impatiently. I raised my brows, surprised at his sudden reaction.

"I can't do it today because first your eyes need to be fully rested to prepare for the procedure. I also haven't been given full access to all of my chakra yet and-" My stomach decided to cut me off by growling very loudly.

I laughed nervously, "...and that."

VVVVVV

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling where the moonlight flooded in creating luminescent streaks. I was careful with my thinking, knowing that Itachi could very well be listening to anything and everything. I kept my vocabulary limited to those who could understand medical terms well, assuming that Itachi had no medical knowledge. Turning on my side to lay facing the wall, I closed my eyes. I could feel my optic nerve deteriorating as well, but my eyes weren't the same as Itachi's. It confused, yet amazed me at the same time that a sharingan wielder's eyes had a subtly different design that that of a normal eye. I began to let down my guard as my mind drifted to thinking about the "check up" I gave Itachi earlier tonight. As soon as I recalled the moment I realized I was in between his legs, I smacked myself on the forehead.

"Damn it!" I yelled in a whisper, clenching my fist in response to my carelessness and knocking my head a few more times.

"Haruno, keep your thoughts down," Itachi had been turned away from me. His voice bounced off of the stone wall, giving it an eerie feel.

"Well, keep your mind creeping down," I scowled at the wall. Things quieted down after our small argument. My lids began to feel heavy as I drifted off to sleep listening to the buzz of peaceful silence.

VVVVVV

Some time during the middle of the night, I was woken up by the cold air of the room. I had somehow kicked my sheets to the end of the bed while I was asleep. I curled into a ball, reluctant to wake my still-sleeping muscles to sit up and pull them back over me. As I closed my eyes to fall back asleep, they immediately snapped open to the feel of a hand lifting up the back of my shirt. I panicked and my heart began racing: It was Itachi. I began to pinch my cheeks to check if I was awake.

_"Is this a dream?!" _

"Haruno," Itachi stopped his motion as he broke the night silence. My shirt was pulled mid-way up my back; I could feel his cool fingers resting on my sixth thoracic vertebra.

"What…are you doing?" I asked, still curled up in fetal position. I was too afraid to turn my head to look at him.

"Removing a seal," He spoke. It sounded like he had more to say, as if to clarify the situation further, but stopped himself. His hand slid a few centimeters further up my spine and I felt a release, like water building up behind a dam that was ready to rush out. It was my chakra. My muscles relaxed, no longer tense as I felt the comfort of regaining my full chakra potential.

"Thanks," I whispered. There was a rustle as Itachi slid back into bed facing his wall. After a while of silence, I heard some shifting coming from the other side of the room.

"By the way, Haruno," Itachi turned his head to face me, his bright eyes piercing through the dark, "you dream rather loudly." There was another rustle as he turned his head back towards the wall. I simmered for a bit in fetal position, grumbling under my breath. Then, I finally gave into my temper as I sat up to yell profanities at the ceiling.

VVVVVV

**A/N 4/16/12**: It feels so nice to be able to update the day after since it is spring vacation after all. I really hope this story is developing well. I'm tempted to get myself a beta, but I'm not sure how that all works out. I also am a bit reluctant to let someone else other than myself change my work (guilty). I know my grammar isn't the best, but I have been working on it so please, bear with me!


	3. Chapter 3

**Uncanny Magnetism**

_Chapter Three_

VVVVVV

"Hey pink-"

"It's Sakura."

"Hey Sakura, where do you want to go, yeah?" My eyes were closed as I sat cross-leggged on a peculiarly textured bird. I was running through the events and conversations earlier this morning as I was working on repairing the retinas in Itachi's eyes.

"I have a choice?" I cracked open one eye with a questioning brow at the loud blonde who had just interrupted my thoughts.

"Yeah, un. Where ever you want," He grinned, winking at me. I opened my other eye and smiled back at him. He reminded me a bit of Naruto: loud, blond hair; bright, blue eyes; cheeky grin.

"Somewhere preferrably with water, that'd be nice," I said through a smile, closing my eyes again to continue my interrupted thoughts. The breeze was crisp, fresh with early morning dew. I took in deep breaths of the cool air, settling back into my mind.

VVVVVV

_"Hey, Uchiha," I said while my hands hovered above his eyes began glowing green, "I was wondering..."_

_"Hn?" His infamous reply had a little touch of questioning inflection._

_"If I could, you know, get out of this place sometimes? I mean, it'd help your surgery go better if I could get a bit of fresh air once in a while," I asked, flubbering a bit as I was unsure of what his response would be. I bit my lower lip, focusing on renewing the neurons one by one, the corner of my lips curling up into a smile as I saw a spark of charges on their surface coming back to life. Itachi sat uncomfortably, shifting every few minutes as he was still getting used to someone else's chakra swirling inside of him._

_"That could be arranged," He grunted, shifting again._

_"Sorry, was that uncomfortable?" I stopped my hands to open my eyes and look at him. His eyes were watering from being open the entire time._

_"You know, you can close your eyes," I laughed, wiping his eyes off with my thumb. He grunted again, moving my hands away from his face to wipe his eyes with the back of his sleeve. He shut his eyes and sat patiently._

_"Alright, let's try this again," I cracked my knuckles and placed my hands above his eyes once more. As I began repairing the rest of the neurons, I sighed at the tedious process and how early it was. At the crack of dawn, I had woken up being carried like a baby in Itachi's arms. He dropped me in front of the bathroom sink shoving a toothbrush in my hands impatiently, requesting to start the procedure early. I bit my lower lip again, connecting the last synapse in Itachi's left retina when I heard someone come in through the door. I took my hands away from Itachi's eyes as he opened them to look towards the noise._

_"Oh, who do we have here, yeah?" The voice was a bit younger than Itachi's. I turned my head and saw a man, probably around twenty––a year older than me. From what my blurred vision could make out, his golden blonde hair was partially pulled up into a ponytail at the crown of his head, bangs covering the left side of his face. His visible eye was an icy blue color and he had a huge, cheeky grin._

_"Deidara, take Haruno out for a walk," Itachi said, getting off his bed and heading out the door._

_"Hey, is the lighting better?" I called quickly after Itachi._

_"Hn." He nodded and walked out the door. I grinned, pulling my hair out from a bun. Light perception surgery, success!_

_"So, time to go, yeah?" The blond grinned at me._

VVVVVV

I could feel the wind dying down as the large, clay bird landed. There was the sound of rushing water. When I opened my eyes, we were at a creek. As I hopped off the bird, Deidara had shrunken it to the size of his palm, squeezing it back into a shapeless wad and placing it one of two pouches hanging off the sides of his hips. I began taking off my shirt and tight spandex shorts that Kisame had kindly provided me with, placing them neatly on a boulder next to where I was standing.

"Hey, I only met you today. What a nice surprise, yeah," Deidara grinned at me.

"Don't get your hopes up, I'm only going for a swim," I scowled, tightening my chest bindings and narrowing my eyes at him. I could feel his eye watching my back as I walked towards the bank. I dipped a foot into the chilly water. _Ah, I'll get used to it_. I jumped in to the center of the creek and surfaced, smoothing my wet hair back.

"That's hot, un," Deidara was lying on his back in the leaf-laden grass, propped up with his elbows. I ignored his whistle as I closed my eyes and expanded my chakra into the water, trying to tone up my ability to 'see' with it. My eye sight was getting worse every day and I knew why. However, my light perception was ace, considering I had just fixed up Itachi's retina. I was ready to yell at him for using his sharingan once Deidara brought us back to the base since I _knew_ he had been using it. I could feel optic nerve fibers getting worn out by the day. I counted the number of fish passing by my field of chakra. So far, I could make out the shape and length of the fish as well as their distance from me and speed. I smiled, feeling satisfied about my progress. As I felt a fish brush past my ankle, I reached in and zapped it with a bit of chakra, stopping its heart.

"Hey," I held the fish up and turned towards Deidara, "want some?"

VVVVVV

I lay on my back atop my set of clothes, propped up with my elbows on Deidara's bird. The wind brushing past us was blowing my undergarments and damp hair dry.

"So, can you tell me a bit more about your team mates? You know, since I'll be here for quite a while," I asked, watching Deidara's hands fletcherize small wads of clay. It was a bit grotesque, but I was curious.

"Sasori-danna is my partner, he's nice, yeah. Kind of quiet..." he looked up at me, grinning with a small clay butterfly in his hand.

"He's still aliv- Ow!" There was a small pop as the animated clay landed on my resting hand. I jolted into sitting position, rubbing my hand which felt like it had just been zapped with static. I scowled at him as he was chuckling.

"He'll be happy to see you, un."

"No shit," I growled, leaning back onto my elbows. I'll make sure to avoid him as much as possible.

"Hidan is-"

"An ass wipe," I interrupted. Deidara smirked at my response.

"So, you've met, yeah?"

"Yep. Kisame is also an ass wipe."

He chuckled, amused at my detailed description of his team mates. So far, Deidara was the most hospitable of the bunch. However, his opinion of me was as perverted as Kisame's. I hopped off the bird as it landed, shrinking once more back into Deidara's pouch. He babbled on about a venus fly trap as we headed towards the entrance of the base when a green figure clothed in the trademark Akatsuki cloak emerged from the damp earth.

"Speak of the devil," I breathed as the gigantic venus fly trap opened with a wet sound.

"Did you bring back dinner?" It spoke. I shivered––it had two voices.

"No, it's Uchiha's little medic, yeah," Deidara was uncomfortably close to my back. I could feel his breath rolling down the nape of my neck as he spoke. I took a step to my right, adding a little distance between us.

"You must be Zetsu," I held out a hand for him to shake. The offer was not returned. I dropped my hand to the side, feeling like an idiot.

"Bring her back inside, yeah. I have some business to take care of."

Deidara walked off, giving his hand a curt wave. I watched him walk off. When I turned my head back, my face met with the chest of Zetsu who suddenly wrapped his arms tightly around my waist.

"What are you-" My exclamation was cut off when we dove into the ground and I was surrounded by pitch darkness.

"Well, I'll be darned," I said, surprised when we surfaced back in the dank base. I dusted myself off and turned back towards Zetsu, about to thank him.

"Thanks-"

He was gone. I muttered under my breath as I walked back towards Itachi's and my room. I stopped in my tracks, realizing that I was faced with several tunnels. To the right of me were two stone hands. Above them was a wooden head with eyes scattered in no specific order. They were all closed. I turned back towards the entryways.

"Eenie meenie-" I started.

"Ah, fuck it," I said as I gave up and walked into the one in the center. Candles flickered on as I passed by, casting my shadow across the stone walls. Having passed several doors without feeling Itachi's familiar chakra, I realized that I had chosen the wrong tunnel. _Dammit_. I thought, continuing to walk through the dim tunnel. Ahead, I heard a noise. I stopped in my tracks, contemplating whether or not I should continue forward. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and continued walking.

"What a pleasant surprise, Haruno."

I had bumped into someone. I opened my eyes.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," I muttered quickly, turning around to walk back to where I came from. It was just the person I had willed before not to see. Lucky me.

"It is rather rude to walk away without a greeting," The voice called after me. I ended up bumping into him again.

"Fuck."

He backed me into a wall, hands on either side of my head. I had dropped my dried clothes in the process. They became damp again as they landed on the wet ground. I could feel the condensation of the moss coating of the wall seeping into the back of my bindings.

"Haruno," He breathed into my face again.

"Sasori," I returned, glaring into his blurred face. Through my limited vision, I could see that his face was less doll-like, more human. He looked about the same age, possibly a bit older.

"How do you like my new body?" He smirked as I lowered my eyes to his bare chest. He was shirtless, and was missing the core above his heart he had the last time I saw him. His joints were completely smooth; there was no sign of the puppet-joints. He took my hand and ran it down his front. Skin.

"What?" I whispered in disbelief. He was well built: His muscles were toned, there was a healthy layer of subcutaneous fat under his smooth, pale skin, and his abs. Oh god, his abs. I snapped myself out of my thoughts. He smirked.

"Tell Chiyo I said 'hi'," He said, binding me with his chakra strings and holding a poisoned kunai to my jugular. I panicked. First, I was lost and second, I wouldn't have the supply of herbs to create an antidote since I was trapped in this hell hole with Sasori. Thinking quickly, I silently cut one of the strings with a chakra scalpel. As the chakra bindings unraveled, I gathered chakra into my palms to thrust into his chest, but I wasn't quite quite fast enough. Sasori slammed me into the wall again, holding my wrists above my head.

"Should I kill you first? Or should I play with you before I do?" He chuckled, attaching strings to my limbs. I snarled, attempting to kick him, but was instantly pulled back as he curled his pointer and ring finger in.

"Actually, you would be a nice addition to my collection," He said, changing his mind and making me walk further down the tunnel to turn a gnarled handle on a carved wooden door. I assumed it was his room. As I was being forced to walk in, I saw a set of doors which were opened the slightest crack. I gasped as I saw through it a room with puppets lining the walls.

"It's not polite to peek at someone else's personal things," He said while attaching strings to the doors and pulling them shut. At that, he stuck something sharp into my spine, paralyzing my entire body as the poison spread. The joints of my limbs locked and became stiff: my legs snapped together, and arms dangled by my sides.

"Don't worry, you won't die. It's just paralyzing poison," He chuckled, laying me on a cot in the center of the room. He wound a piece of gauze in between my teeth and around my head, muffling my cries. I could hear him laying out medical tools on a table, the metal clinking against a sterilized pan. I could feel the cold scalpel begin to nick the bend of my elbow when the door opened.

"Hey, Sasori no da-" I heard Deidara cut himself off, "Oh, what do we have here, yeah?" He came towards the cot. Sasori growled, angry at being interrupted.

"What do you want, Deidara?" I tried to scream at Deidara to make him get me out.

"Uchiha won't be happy that you're making his little medic a doll, yeah," He looked down at me with a wide grin after addressing his partner, "but, you'd make a rather cute doll, yeah?" He untied the saturated gauze which had been forcefully tied around my mouth. My tongue felt dry like cardboard after the gauze had absorbed most of the moisture from it. Sasori snarled and Deidara heaved my stiff body over his shoulder.

"You're pretty light, yeah," He chuckled, carrying me out the door.

VVVVVV

"You are forbidden to leave this room, Haruno."

"What!" I sat, tied up on my bed.

"You are forbidden to go anywhere without my presence by your side," He expanded.

"That sounds _much_ better. Not," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Unless, you want me to take that privilege away," He cocked his head, body leaning forward on the chair in front of my bed.

"No, no, that sounds perfect," I laughed nervously.

"Good," He said, getting out of the chair and returning it to the desk.

"By the way, I forbid you to use your sharingan as long as you are still under surgery. Don't think I don't know that you have been using it," I threatened him. He paused.

"You're just prolonging the healing process," I explained. He sat down on his bed with a, 'hn.' I felt a tingling sensation in my nerves as Sasori's poison began to wear off. I looked down at my hands––they were blue. The ropes were tied so tightly that my circulation was getting cut off.

"Uchiha, do you mind untying me? If my hands fall off, I won't be able to fix you," I said. The room fell silent for a short moment, but Itachi ended up listening to my requests. He couldn't take the risk of losing the only medic available to heal his eyes. When he approached my bed, he leaned over my shoulder, wrapping his arms around my sides to reach my hands which were tied behind my back. I quickly shut my mind up before any thoughts could begin to surface, but it didn't stop my face from heating up at the contact.

"Ow! You're pulling them tighter!" I complained as he yanked the rope in the wrong direction. There was a silence as he continued to fumble with the now tighter knot.

"Why don't you just use a kunai?" I muttered, feeling my hands getting cold and purple due to lack of circulation.

"I don't have any," His voice was hot against my ear. _Right_. There was no use for someone who was practically blind. I assumed that he was no longer given missions since he lacked his sole weapon: the sharingan. I had also figured out earlier this morning that his perception had been, well, _screwed_ along with the deterioration of his sight by the effects of the mangekyou. He gave a grunt as he continued to struggle with the knot.

"You're pathetic, Uchiha," I laughed, amused to witness someone who was practically perfect before his senses began to dwindle.

"Here, focus your chakra into your hands. Close your eyes and feel with your chakra," I gave him a tip, feeling sorry as well as getting impatient with my dying hands. There was a silence as Itachi closed his eyes. I could feel his chakra swell, the warmth engulfing me as it traveled from his core, down his arms, and settled uncertainly in his palms. His hands brushed across mine as he felt for the knot, untying it deftly with his fingers. I sighed as I felt the blood rush back into my hands.

"Thanks, Haruno," He said before leaving the room.

VVVVVV

**A/N 4/17/12**: And the fluff commences! Thank you so much to those who have reviewed! It's really nice to hear your opinions and even to help me point out some of the flaws in my writing. I definitely have much to improve on, especially grammar. My mind is really cranking out the ideas right now, and I am really hoping that I don't get stuck on a plateau. If you have any suggestions, I'll be more than happy to consider them. (:


	4. Chapter 4

**Uncanny Magnetism**

_Chapter Four_

VVVVVV

I was startled. The moment I opened my eyes, there was an orange, swirled mask with a single eye opening staring down at me. This provoked my reflexes as I jolted out of bed, finding myself landing back on my pillow again just as quickly with a fresh contusion on my forehead after colliding with the mask. As I nursed my forehead, the green light encouraging the detumescence of the rather large lump, the orange face popped up over the side of my bed again.

"Hiya!" He waved at me maniacally.

"Umm...hi?" I drawled groggily, rubbing my healed wound.

"Tobi heard that Itachi-sempai brought back a pretty girl! Tobi was mad that it was a secret, but Deidara-sempai wouldn't shut up about a pink blossom! Tobi says 'hi'!" He said, excitedly. His voice was like a child, but it sounded strangely disguised. I brushed the thought of his strangeness off, dismissing it as just a careless assumption due to my fogged mind.

"Nice to meet you, Tobi-san," I smiled as medic-friendly as possible. I held out a hand for him to shake; he happily took it and shook violently. He was strong. I had underestimated his capacity because of his child-like voice, but that hand shake had just brought my entire body along with it. I was shaken into full consciousness.

"Nice to meet you, too, pretty girl!" I could feel his smile radiating from behind his mask. Looking down, I realized he hadn't let go of my hand, yet. He gave a few short tugs on my arm.

"What is it, Tobi-san?" I questioned.

"Tobi wants you to meet everyone else!"

"But I-" I glanced over at Itachi's sleeping form. His chakra was not stirring.

"Maybe it wouldn't hurt," I sighed, getting off the bed and following Tobi as he dragged my sluggish body to the door. Just as he cracked the door open, Itachi shifted in his bed.

"Where do you think you're going, Haruno?" I froze, turning my head back into the room. It was creepy how Itachi could be completely calm about, well, everything. He never seemed to lose his cool nor did he ever think thoughts as useless as mine. Realizing chicanery would not work, I laughed nervously. There was no excuse. Afterall, he had forbidden me to leave the room without him by my side.

"Pretty girl is coming with Tobi!" Tobi stuck his masked face in the door way, disencumbering me from having to explain myself.

VVVVVV

It was raining. I could feel it in the soddened hollows of my bones. I sat, tapping my pen to the patter of the soft downpour outside. My thoughts began drifting from the text in front of me. I remembered Tobi's whine when he realized that no one else was present in the base, probably due to missions. Itachi had been fully awake by the time I came back into the room alone. He had been flipping through the pages of my notes, attempting to read them. Fortunately, my penmanship was rather petite. When he turned to face me, I found myself in a moment of shock. At first glance, he really did resemble him and I finally understood why Naruto had been mistaken. In fact, I hadn't realized how much I thought of him daily. Itachi reminded me of him so much: His tendencies, stolid nature, intense stare. It has been years since I last saw him. He was tall and strong, but his eyes were so dull and life-less. I missed the fire he used to have flickering in them, the glint of mischievousness behind his facade of indifference. However, there was one thing I carelessly glanced over: his bloodlust. I mistook it for passion and strength. A sad smile stretched across my lips; I was such an imbecile. So stupid and young. So eager to follow him to Orochimaru and betray Konoha solely for my infatuation. Even though those days were over, I couldn't get over him. Everytime I heard Itachi's voice or felt his hot breath fanning across my face as I examined his crimson eyes, I saw his face.

"Do you ever stop thinking about my brother, Haruno?" Itachi had once again intruded into my thoughts again.

"Do you ever stop walking all over my brain, Sasuke?" _Shit._ I slipped.

"Hn."

"Fuck."

"That confirms it," He said, smirking at his victory. I turned back to my book, readily placing my finger tips over the braille. The instant my fingers touched the raised print on the pages, I snapped around in my chair.

"Fight me, Uchiha."

"Excuse me?"

"Spar with me. Taijutsu only."

I was adamant. I wanted to get him out of my system. I wanted Sasuke out and I was at my last string.

"Fine."

I smirked at his reply, reached into the drawer, and slipped on my fighting gloves. This Sasuke sand bag was going down.

VVVVVV

"Oh. You're ambidextrous?" I asked, brows raised in quizzical amusement. I had Itachi pinned to the ground. He was good, really good. However, not so much without his senses. A couple minutes into our heated spar was enough time for me to realize the I had the upper hand. _I, _Haruno Sakura, had the upper hand against _the_ Uchiha Itachi. I let out a pert laugh as I knelt right above his hips on my shins. I was tickled––He was completely useless due to the damage of the Sharingan. Itachi lay on the ground, head turned to the side to avoid contact with my eyes.

"Hey, Uchiha," I said, taking hold of his face with my right hand. I turned his head with a gentle force to face me, "I'll teach you something." His gaze was still averted from mine; I could see the defeat in his eyes. I extended my hand out to him after I stood up and dusted myself off, but he just lay there with his head turned to the side again. I could feel the rush of his emotions spinning within my chest for a split second, but he always managed to close them off before they spread wildly.

"I can never tell what you're thinking, Uchiha."

He sat up looking me squarely in the eye. I could feel a thought forming in his mind, but as usual, he extinguished it as soon as it was just a glimmering spark ready to set ablaze.

"That's how I intend it to be, Haruno," He murmured. His voice and his nonchalant gaze gave me chills. Now that his Sharingan was defective, his eyes were a glassy obsidian. They were quite vibrant with life and emotion unlike Sasuke's piercing onyx ones.

"If you're playing a game, it's not going to last long," I grinned, sliding into ready position. As soon as my feet shifted in the sod, Itachi shot up shakily.

"Try to assess my propinquity," I said. I had jumped backwards a few meters away from him.

"Three and a quarter meters."

"Wrong, three and a half."

Frustrated, Itachi lunged at me and we engaged in a weaponless, chakraless fight. His taijutsu was brilliant and I could tell. However, he was handicapped and his judgement was off by a few centimeters in close combat. A fist swung, missing my nose by several millimeters. I could hear the frustration in his shallow, jagged breaths. Suddenly, Itachi stopped his movements and folded over. He was hemorrhaging.

"Itachi!" I bounded over to him quickly, pumping my chakra into his system and searching for the source of hemoptysis.

_"Fuck, this is bad." _My medic eyes continued scanning through his body. I eventually settled on the lower respiratory region after seeing that nothing else was wrong in his body.

_"Shit, Itachi. Why didn't you tell me something else was wrong with you? Damned prideful Uchiha."_

My thoughts were angry, but I didn't have time to dwell on the infamous cockiness of the Uchiha brothers. His lips were stained a crimson red from the violent coughing and his breath was irregular. Seeing the extensiveness of the vascular damage worried me. He had been keeping this illness to himself for an extensive amount of time. I didn't hesitate to begin soothing the inflammation in his blood vessels and starting the reparation of his damaged lungs. I withdrew my chakra once his staggered breathing had ceased. After bringing him back to our room, his eyes flickered open once his head touched his pillow.

_"Haruno,"_ He spoke to me through his thoughts.

_"What, Uchiha?"_ I sent back.

_"Nothing." _He closed his eyes again and fell asleep. I watched him for a bit, marveling at the sheer strangeness of the man laying in front of me. Soon enough, I was brought back deeper into my mind as I sat at the edge of Itachi's bed. I closed my eyes and placed a hand over his face as he slept, sweeping gentle wisps of chakra across his features. His eyes were more feminine than Sasuke's; his lashes were rather prominent, softening the sharp angles of his eye shape. Beneath his eyes were a deep set of tear troughs which curved gently outwards toward the apples of his cheeks. His nose was a bit broader than his younger brother's, but just as straight. When I reached his lips, they were slightly parted and I could feel his warm breath rushing out between them as his chest rose and fell at a steady pace. To be frank, Itachi was rather gorgeous. I shook my head in attempts to rid it of my thoughts. My purpose in sparring with Itachi was to sock the living daylights out of this cookie-cutter image of Sasuke in order to forget my childhood crush. Feasting on Itachi's beautiful facial features would bring me no where near such an accomplishment. As I stood, the slight motion of the bed had caused a small bottle to roll out from underneath. I knelt down to pick it up, blowing off the soft layer of dust that had gathered over its surface. When I turned my head around to look under the bed, I was faced with a graveyard of pill bottles identical to the one I held in my hand.

"Holy shit," I breathed, digging my arm in to sweep out more of the empty bottles. After reading through all of the labels with a brush of chakra from my thumb, I was able to learn that Itachi was suffering from some sort of autoimmune disease and was medicating himself for the past four years. I lay my glowing hand over Itachi's chest again. My findings confirmed the diagnosis that had been scrawled across the countless bottles. Just as soon as I had stopped his hemorrhaging on the training grounds, his body had begun attacking itself again. The medication he had been taken merely supressed his immune system, rendering his body vulnerable to illnesses. I quickly drew out more chakra to my hands to reverse his immune system, waking it up from its dormant state and guiding it to function correctly. His breathing was becoming less shallow and color began to fade in slowly on his skin.

VVVVVV

It was really loud. I furrowed my brows, attempting to fall back asleep amidst the ruckus going on. Unfortunately, I failed as I was fully conscious. When I opened my eyes, I found myself laying in an awkward position next to a sleeping Itachi. In surprise, I yanked myself backwards away from him, only ending up hitting my head against the table which separated my bed from his. I bit back a cry as I held my hands over the back of my head, knowing that anything could wake Itachi. It took a lot of willpower to stay motionless next to him in hopes of not rousing him from sleep. The noise continued on, but it didn't seem to come from outside nor within the room itself. It struck me rather violently that the cacophony was taking place within Itachi's dream and I was, for once, able to wallow in his subconscious. I couldn't see his dream, but I most certainly could hear it. Though this was the limit of our connection, I could tell that he was an abstract dreamer. As I closed my eyes in attempts to clarify what the sounds in his dream were, an arm snaked around my waist.

_"Shit!" _I hissed in my mind. There was definitely no way I could make it back to my bed. I lay stiffly, listening to the last few minutes of his dream. His breathing slowed down and his eyes rested from their REM state. I decided it was time to take the risk. As I slowly peeled his arm from my waist, his grip tightened suddenly, eyes snapping open.

"Going somewhere, Haruno?" His voice dripped heavily of sleep and his lids were slightly lowered. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"First, you look through my personal things," his eyes scanned the ground which was littered with his pill bottles, "then you listen to my dreams. That's a major infraction, Haruno."

"First, you hired your skanky team mate to kidnap me. Then, you trapped me in this room only to have you walking around through my mind twenty four-seven. Not only that, Uchiha, but you were dying and failed to notify me of your illness when I started your eye treatment," I growled lowly. Thunder was rumbling outside and each time the lightning flashed, I could see his eyes boring into mine.

"I'm going back to bed."

When I tried to pry his arm off my waist, he only tightened it to lock me back onto his bed.

"Stay."

"What?" I squeaked. I could only assume that the expression I shot at him was a look that questioned his sanity.

"I was pretty clear with my words, Haruno."

I reluctantly shifted, tucking myself into a less uncomfortable position. My ear was against his chest and I could hear his heart beating rapidly.

"You're scared of thunder, aren't you?"

"No."

"Don't lie, Uchiha. Besides, it's fair that if you're able to read my mind, I'm able to feel your emotions, too."

"That didn't come with the package," He mumbled, his chin moving against the top of my head where it rested.

"No, it most certainly did not. However, I'm rather adept at reading emotions through someone else's chakra."

"Hn." We lay in silence for a while, listening to the rumbling and the rain splashing onto the muddy ground outside of the room. As the thunder ceased, the rain slowed to a light drizzle and silence washed over the room.

"May I go back to my bed now?" I asked. There was no response. I mumbled under my breath and closed my eyes, falling to sleep listening to the steady thump in his chest.

VVVVVV

**A/N**: I was struggling so much with this chapter. I was a bit worried that it was too jumpy and didn't make sense. What I was most frazzled about was whether or not I was moving Sakura and Itachi too close too fast. Please let me know through a review or PM if I am fluffing it up too much and if I should slow down their romantic development. Please and thank you! (: Happy reading!

**P.S. - To clarify some things**, Itachi was coughing up blood (I kept this issue from the manga) because he was suffering from an auto immune illness. This is why he seems to be sleeping so much because the illness is draining his energy. I'm sorry if things aren't quite medically correct since I had to tailor it to my story. Also, the seal Itachi placed in Sakura connects them has its limits. The illness Itachi had (he's healed!) does not present itself in Sakura. The seal seems to only connect them from the neck up (thoughts, dreams, etc), but even then, it has its flaws seeing that they can only hear each other's dreams.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N 7/14/12:

Dear lovely readers,

I am so sorry about the prolonged wait on the next chapter of Uncanny Magnetism. I apologize if you believed I would not return to this fiction, but I promise promise and swear on all my pinkies including my toes that I am still in the process of writing the next chapter. I have been deleting and deleting paragraph after paragraph in frustration. After all, I would intend the best for my readers. I ask that you please stay patient a little bit longer for me because I am working very hard to launch the next chapter. I am just as excited as you are so please stay a bit longer. I felt a bit guilty for going to sleep at 2 am without having posted anything yet, so I have decided to try and brainstorm a bit more and hopefully crank a few more sentences out or at least a few more words.

I sincerely apologize again for the hiatus as I have just recently graduated from high school and am looking into starting off my career in the medical field as a pre-med student in college. I will be rather busy and frazzled up, but I will still try my very best to keep up with this fiction.

I would like to thank those who have messaged me. It really makes me happy and encourages me so much to hear that you love the story. I hope to make it the best for you all! =^v^=

Love,

Yours Truly

VVVVVV

10/31/12: And here is chapter 5 y'all! :) Sorry for the long wait!

**Uncanny Magnetism**

_Chapter Five_

VVVVVV

"Dammit!" I screamed in frustration, slamming the book shut as I buried my face in my palms. The weeks went rolling by and I still had no clue how to fix the optic nerve fibre.

_How can you renew something that doesn't naturally regenerate itself? _I began to run the possibilities through my mind, only to realize that there were none. I had already read each tome from start to finish in my four week stay. There was nothing. The door opened and closed behind me right when I buried my head in my hands. I instinctively shoot out of my chair and face him.

"Uchiha, I think I found something." _Lies._ He knowingly headed towards the edge of the bed. The chair scraped the floor painfully as I dragged it out and I plopped down on it. My nonexistent sleeves were rolled up and my grown-out hair knotted into its usual bun. I figured if I couldn't scavenge any information by scouring through the books, I would have to learn hands-on; I was a rather adept kinesthetic learner.

"Your eyes," I start, but quickly get absorbed in my examination again.

"What about them?" His form was stiff as usual. Though we had been through this routine countless times, he still managed to cling onto some sort of control. It seems Uchihas never let their guard down.

"They're interesting," I piped as I probed my chakra deeper in.

"Hn."

The room fell into a silent hum as I explored the object of my frustration. Being a medic truly was my passion, but this several-times-a-week examination process was getting a bit monotonous. Sure, research was great. That is if you were actually learning some thing new. However, it seemed the longer I searched, the less I found and it was excruciatingly vexatious.

"So, um, when can I sleep in my own cot again?" My voice cracked as I attempted to interrupt the silence. I chewed on my chapped lower lip, plucking off the frayed skin with my teeth as I prodded a dead section of his optic nerve gently. He jumped slightly as if he could feel the sensation.

"Did you feel something?" I digressed from the topic of sharing cots. Knowing that I wouldn't receive a response from him, I poked the same section which resulted in similar response. "That's interesting," I said as I pulled my chakra away from his eyes, "it's dead, but reacts when touched by my chakra." As my medic-eyes faded out, I realized that my vision was slightly more clear. However, with the blink of an eye, everything was just as blurry as before.

_Just my imagination._ I thought as I made to stand up from my chair. As I shifted just the slightest margin of an inch, I could feel the subtle warmth of Itachi's hands at the side of my hips.

"Haruno."

"What?" I glared at him, disgust seething through my half-blind eyes. I had gotten out of his chair, but his hands still lingered and were now placed on my thighs.

"I have lost my sight."

"What," I spluttered, "How is that possible? Why can I see?"

"You tell me, Haruno."

"Fuck's sake!" I screamed, holding my head as I paced around the room. If this were to happen at the hospital back in Konoha, it would mean that I was screwed. Big time. Even though I was trapped in the lair of S-classed ninjas and not in the bitter-sweet antiseptic smelling exam rooms of the hospital, I still had my doctor mentality switch on.

_I'm fucked…I had one chance, one opportunity...I'm probably useless shit by now because I seriously don't know what-_

"Haruno, you have one last chance to fix this," He cut off my raging throughts. With that, he rose from his cot and head out the door. I was left in fetal position on my cot grinding through a million ways I could be tortured to my grave if I failed to discover a solution for the mess my avant-garde skills as a medic had caused.

VVVVVV

"Wake up, sleeping beauty," The voice was muddled in my partial consciousness. As I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and loosened my joints with multitudinous satisfactory cracks, I could make out the gruff form of Kisame's uncloaked body.

"Shut the fuck up," I replied unceremoniously as I closed my eyes and flopped back onto my cot.

"Hey, kunobitchy, I was just trying to be nice."

"Being nice would be to get your huge ass up off my lovely bed and saunter off out of my room so I can sleep," I muttered in exasperation, voice muffled by the rough cotton of my pillow. His sheer weight was tilting my bed in his direction and I was surprised that it didn't snap the moment he sat on its edge.

"Being nice as in I woke you up so you wouldn't miss your dinner," He said as he turned me over onto my back with one finger like a roasting fish. I cracked my right eye open, mouth watering at the thought of dinner. "That's right, get up," He grinned seeing that he had successfully woken me up.

"What is it?" I asked sitting up with my eyes closed, unwilling to open my eyes since he had turned on the lights in the room.

"Take a look for yourself, princess." A plastic container had been shoved onto my bare lap. The contents weren't warm. Surely my eyes had bulged out of my head when I saw what I was being served in such insubstantial conditions.

"Fuck me," I whispered as I eyed the contents.

"Gladly," Kisame smirked.

"Shut up, I didn't mean it in that way, asshole," My lips curled in disgust, but my eyes were still glued on the container.

"Well?"

"I can have it all to myself?" I gulped.

"It's all for you."

"No catch?"

"No catch."

"Alright," I licked my lips and broke apart the cheap wooden chopsticks. "Wait," I paused just as I was ready to dig in, "this is suspcious. I mean, for all I know, you could have poisoned it. Or worse: you could have drugged it so you could screw me." I shuddered at the thought.

"Now, why would I do that?" He grinned, gesturing to the container for me to eat.

"I mean, I am here against my will. Why _wouldn't_ you do that?"

"I'm not that cruel you little shit. Oh, but that latter suggestion sounds a bit enticing." He placed his hand on my inner thigh, dangerously close to the goods that he would never be allowed to touch.

"Fuck off," I threatened him, smacking his hand off with my chopsticks. I picked up a thick, deep red slice of raw tuna and slowly savored it.

"Mm, damn. The way you eat is so erotic."

"What is wrong with you?" I glared at him, speaking in a rather unladylike manner with my mouth full of partially digested fish, rice, and nori. Kisame shrugged and watched me devour the rest of my meal. "So, what caused you to be so gracious enough to bring me this?" I patted my full stomach as I leaned back on the pillow I propped against the wall.

"Oh, it wasn't my idea. I was just the delivery man. It was Itachi who asked me," He grinned.

"Well, fuck me."  
"Gladly."

"Shut up."

VVVVVV

"Not bad for a blind hag."

"Fuck you, I'll make you my bitch," I grit my teeth, sweating profusely from working up my heart rate. In the half hour that Kisame and I had sparred, I managed to inflict several non-debilitating injuries upon him along with a severe stab wound which ran from the edge of his left collar bone down to his navel.

"Oh, feisty. I like it," He grinned, seemingly unaffected by his injuries. I could feel my body already giving into the pulsating pain radiating from the raw skin on my right forearm. Some time during the middle of our sparring session, he had managed to get my arm part way down his throat. In attempt to break free, I had to yank my arm out by kicking off on his face and ultimately shredding off slivers of skin from my forearm. Apparently I was improving a lot, seeing that it was the only injury he had inflicted give or take a couple deep bruises along my legs.

"Why don't we call it a day, little shit," He said whilst eyeing me, "you look pooped and apparently my life is bleeding out from me. Why don't you come over here and work your magic on my body?"

"Like hell I will!" I barely had any chakra left for healing my own injuries and could only do a half-ass job if I saved any for him. I immediately began cell-turnover on my arm with my healing chakra, sighing at the relief of pain.

"You are under my rules right now, and you do what I say, kunoichi," Kisame breathed into my face as he backed me into a tree, effectively crushing me between it and his bloodied chest.

"Or what?" I threatened, glaring at him with my partially healed arm's wounds reopening slightly from the crushing pressure.

"Wanna find out?"

"I'm not healing an asshole like you, go stitch it up yoursel––ohh fuck," I regret my words immediately after I said them. Kisame sunk his teeth into my neck, drawing droplets of blood forth.

"I bet you like that, don't you?"

"That doesn't turn me on you disgusting, land dwelling, oxygen wasting piece of fish ass!" I spat in his face, jabbing a chakra scalpel into a non-vital point on his side with my last ounce of chakra.

VVVVVV

_"She's awake."_

_"And in so much trouble, yeah?"_

My mouth felt as dry as cotton and my head was heavy like I was drugged. I wasn't sure how long I was passed out since my spar with Kisame. My right forearm felt tight and I was sure there were stitches running up and down the length of my arm. I opened and closed my fist to flex my forearm and could feel that the stitching was extremely intricate. Definitely something I would need to study in detail as an addition to my medical skills.

_"Would be. If not for him."_

My eyelids were heavy; it seemed like morphine was being pumped into my system. When I finally fought through the fog, Sasori and Deidara was standing over me with bright lights shining above.

"You looked so cute when you were sleeping, yeah," Deidara grinned.

"How long?" I was able to choke out. Forcing my consciousness through the cloud of fog in my mind was draining.

"A day and a half." Sasori sounded far away. The drugs were only starting to wear off.

"You're a little troublemaker, yeah?"

"What happened?" I asked Sasori, ignoring Deidara's pointless remarks.

"Extreme blood-loss, empty chakra tank. That was a wreckless spar, kunoichi."

"Who are you?" I croaked at the unfamiliar voice through my dry vocals.

"Kakuzu." The man's face was partially covered by ninja cloths and his eyes were an eerie green. As he answered, I felt a searing pain on my injured arm again. While I grimaced, strings shot out from Kakuzu's body and patched up what seemed to be a lengthening of the wound.

"Stop moving, kunoichi. It's annoying to keep stitching you up." I smirked lazily. More drugs were being pumped into me.

"Thanks for the stitching tips…" I drawled as my eyes closed again.

VVVVVV

Five days had slithered by at a snail-like pace and Itachi was not in any of them. Strangely, I was beginning to miss the feeling of his presence always lingering beside me. I had to admit that it was definitely better than Kisame who had been attending to me since Itachi had lost his eyesight. I was constantly on edge: making sure my clothing was modest, locking him out of the bathroom while I was bathing, and so on. Lamentably, it did not prevent his advances.

"Good morning, Haruno-san." The voice was unrecognizable and strangely feminine. I was met with a female who was slightly older than me with shocking blue hair, grey eyes with aquamarine shaded lids, and a labret piercing.

"Good morning...and you are?" I sat up in bed, nervously smoothing out my hair in embarrassment.

"Pardon my discourteousness, you may call me Konan. Your morning meal will be ready after you wash up."

"Excuse my audacity to ask, but what happened to Uchiha-san and where is Kisame?" I brushed up my language, thankful that there was someone in this gloomy lair grateful enough to treat me with respect.

"Uchiha has revoked Hoshigake's right to have you in his care. I believe there were some complications with inappropriate caretaker and subject relations. Uchiha has been on personal leave. Is there anything else you need to know, Haruno-san?"

"That's...more than I expected to hear, actually. Thanks!" I laughed nervously, excusing myself to go clean up my messy morning state. I had more to ask, but I didn't want to probe into classified information. As I brushed my teeth, I wondered why I was given better treatment than I expected as a captive.

"They're probably buttering me up or something," I scoffed, splattering toothpaste foam over the scuffed mirror and porcelain sink, "waiting for me to slip up so they can torture me to their hearts' content."

"Quite vocal, aren't you, Haruno?" Surprised, I spat into the sink and spun around. Itachi was standing there steadily in all his glory.

"You're back," I spluttered.

VVVVVV

It became what seemed like a weekly ritual: Whenever it rained, I would end up spending the night next to him. In fact, it seemed to be raining much more frequently lately. Practically daily. On this unfortunate night, it seemed that neither of us were able to fall asleep. As the thunder rolled in the distance, our breathing evened out and I could feel our chests rise and fall at the same tempo. We were rather close. In fact, there was practically no space between us if it wasn't for that miniscule atomical gap separating us. It couldn't be helped considering the width of his cot wasn't quite the grandest, but I could not deny that it was rather comforting to feel his breath gently fanning across my face and his heart beating faintly against my own. I shifted my legs in attempts to accommodate them under the meager sheets only to find them tangled with his. I groaned and flipped on my back resulting in half of my body hanging off the edge of the cot and my head jammed against the side of the desk. Shrinking back from the cold, I decided to pull my limbs back in and lie with my back against him. Sadly, it was no better position as I was now spooning with Itachi, and the few seconds that we lay stiffly against each other were becoming quite awkward. I immediately found myself being flipped rather rudely back to my original position.

"I hope you know that this is completely platonic," I muttered into his chest, voice muffled by its soft contours.

"Hn."

The hand he placed on the small of my back pulled me in tighter. In a way, it felt strangely nice to have him next to me again.

VVVVVV

**A/N 10/31/12**: Happy halloween guys! I'm so sorry it's been forever since I have updated. It has been an insane first couple months in college. Thank you so so much for waiting. I can't believe I had this chapter all typed up and did not upload it because I was too self-conscious that I had written it poorly. I spent hours and hours re-editing it, and unfortunately an author is his orher own worst critic...Please do enjoy! :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Uncanny Magnetism**

_Chapter Six_

VVVVVV

_Why does it fucking rain so much? It's seriously killing my mood._

I sat at my usual desk, stabbing my utensil at the surprisingly decent breakfast which was left for me when I woke up to an empty room. For the past few weeks, my mornings were greeted by the loud patter of the downpour. How could the sky hold such abounding amounts of water? That was a question I could not possibly deduct with logic.

_Not to mention...it's also completely destroying the small amount of determination I had to solve this retarded medical case._

With my appetite completely lost, I pushed my breakfast away and buried my face in my hands. I didn't expect even a minute of peace here. When the door opened, I groaned inside, afraid to show my exasperation externally. Except, it wasn't who I thought it would be.

"Blossom-chan?"

"Yes?" I perked up to the voice. I turned around in my chair reluctantly and was faced again with the orange-masked boy. The part of me that was tensed up in belief that it was Itachi relaxed.

"Come play with me! Come!" He bounced over and came so close to me that my back was arched over uncomfortably against the edge of the desk and my elbows had to support my wobbling weight. My shins were grinding painfully on the edge of the chair because Tobi began leaning on the back to get closer to my face.

"Tobi, I––shit!" I toppled off the chair, smashing the back of my head against the table.

"Blossom-chan! Are you okay?! Tobi is so sorry! Tobi is so sorry!" He jumped on me and hugged me. Even though Tobi had a very genuine character, he never failed to make situations worse.

"It's okay Tobi," I faked a smile, "but, may I please get up?" Before I could manage to prop myself up, Tobi popped up on his feet and brought me along with him.

"Uh, thanks…"

"No problem, Blossom-chan. Tobi is here for you!"

"Tobi, I have to get back to work," I said as I inched back toward my desk of unopened books.

He pouted, "But, Tobi wants to play with Blossom-chan!"

"I-I can't leave the room, Tobi. Itachi-san said I couldn't."

_Score! That was a legitimate excuse._ I thought after responding to him. I tried to seem as disappointed as I could, even though I was rejoicing at my success.

"Leader-sama said you can with me!" He pounced on my arm and began dragging me out the door.

"L-Leader-sama?" _No! Fuck no! He got me!_

"Yup! Leader-sama is in charge of everyone here! Blossom-chan, don't worry!"

"Who is leader-sama, Tobi?" I asked, rubbing my sore cranium.

"The leader-sama!" He chirped as his surprisingly powerful arms dragged me out of the gloomy bedroom. I scowled inside––Tobi wasn't much of a help. I knew he was the leader of the Akatsuki, but what gave him so much power as to command a group of insanely skilled S-classed ninjas who could kill anyone in an instant? I needed answers, and I needed them quick. I was ready to bust out of this nut house, especially since I had no idea how to cure Itachi. The constant rain was driving me insane and I felt like a kunai was pointed at my back at all times. Even worse, the more it rained, the more uneasy I was beginning to feel.

"Oh, shit," I said as I plundered to the ground. Tobi had stopped abruptly in the middle of a room with a plush blanket of deep crimson carpeting. In my oblivion, I had crashed into his back and woken up from my clouded thoughts. As I scanned the room, books lined every inch of the walls in mahogany shelves.

"Tobi wants to show you his library!" He jumped around, ignoring the fact that I was sprawled out on the floor. Dusting myself off, I made my way to the first edge of the shelves. I closed my eyes as I ran my finger tips down the first row at my shoulder's height. The musky, sweet smell of the old, dusty books was intoxicating and beautiful.

"I love it so much, Tobi."

"Do you?" I opened my eyes at his normal-sounding tone. He sounded genuine in his curiosity––he sounded like a man.

"Yes."

I could only find myself being captured in this moment. My arm fell down by my side as I shifted my body to face him.

"They're for you," He said as he waved his arm toward the shelves, gesturing me to resume my exploration. My heart rate was accelerated. I wasn't sure if it was the charm of the books or the shock of a drastic character change in Tobi. I didn't know what to think of the situation either. Was I excited to see a glimpse of a sign of life in this dank hell-hole? Or was I truly scared of how each second in this place produced something new and unexpected?

"Thank you," I barely whispered out as I continued looking through the book spines, brushing each one I passed with my fingertips. As I progressed, I only felt more uneasy. His eye was constantly on me, the atmosphere became thick and heavy. Each tick and tock of the grandfather clock in the corner resounded like thunder in the distance.

"I knew you would like them, Sakura," He broke the long silence. He seemed to have stressed my name or perhaps it was just the queer idea that he had called me by my name for the first time. The heavy oak doors shut heartily as I was left alone in the room. I let out a huge breath as my shoulders loosened. The past few minutes was the strangest encounter I had in my life.

VVVVVV

"Where have you been?" Itachi shot at me as I opened the door.

"Seems like you've gotten some of your vision back," I said as I observed the recovered focus in his iris, "I told you the ocular rest would help." I walked into the room and plopped a stack of the dusty books from Tobi's library onto the desk.

"Answer my question," He said, seemingly ticked.

"Wow, these books must have cost a fortune!" I exclaimed as I flipped through the book on the top of the stack.

"Answer me!" Itachi grabbed my shoulder and forcefully turned me toward him.

"Whoa, geez. Calm down, don't get your knickers in a twist. I thought you were Mr. Cool, calm and collected. If you fume more, you might pop a vessel in that eye," I smirked and poked him on the forehead with a finger. As I made to turn back around towards the desk, he grabbed my shoulder again and held me before I could.

"I ordered you to not leave the room without me present beside you."

"Tobi brought me to his library. He said your leader gave him permission."

I could feel Itachi's muscles tense at my words before he gathered himself together and let go of my shoulders, returning to his normal demeanor. I quickly grabbed the book I was eyeing and lay in my own cot, Itachi in his. The candles in the room flickered brighter as the rainy sky grew darker. Though there were shadows in the room and I couldn't see very well, I could feel his eyes flicker on to me for a few flighty seconds and back up to the ceiling. This happened every few minutes. I tried very hard to dismiss it and focus back on my novel. I was getting a bit frustrated at the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, who was absolutely blind to how the cold-complexioned character of Mr. Darcy was just a facade. They loved each other, but held back because of their strong personalities and different worlds. I sighed and closed the finished book, placing it back onto the desk. At least they had a happy ending, something that will never happen in this musty rats' nest. Glad that it was only heavy rain for once and not thunder, I snuggled up in my own sheets and fell asleep quickly without Itachi's warmth by my side. I dreamed of being Elizabeth Bennet.

VVVVVV

_"I hate you, and I will never love a cold-hearted man like you!" I spat in Itachi's face. The rain was pouring on the grassy hill. My hair was sticking to my face, my clothes drenched and hugging my figure. Droplets were forming on Itachi's desperate expression._

_"Perhaps we are of different worlds, Sakura, but I know you feel the same for me as I do you," He spoke, lips wet with rain. His cloak was heavy on his shoulders and saturated from the sky water._

_"No, it cannot happen," I was hysterical. It was unreal, unimaginable. A man like him and a girl like me could not end up together. We were from two very different worlds._

_"It could if you let it, Sakura. You are too strongly rooted in your pride or not marrying a man of my background. Please, give this a chance. Give us a chance."_

_"It's too...uncanny to ever make possible. Things will never work out, Itachi. It wasn't made to be that way."_

_The thunder cracked loudly._

VVVVVV

I woke up, gasping and drenched in cold sweat. The thunder outside was roaring and the rain fell down in sheets. When I opened my eyes, Itachi was beside me, looking down on my face with soft and sleepy eyes. I realized that he must have carried me onto his side in the middle of the night when the thunder began. After my strange dream of Itachi as Mr. Darcy and me as Elizabeth created tension in the small distance between us. I prayed that he did not witness the contents of my dream. My arms acted as my shield between us.

"What do you dream about that causes you to thrash so violently in your sleep?" He asked, with an air of coolness and a hint of curiosity. I relaxed a bit, realizing he could only witness so much of my mind in our connection.

"Uncanny things. Nothing of importance for you to worry about," I averted my gaze from his, "I don't understand why you can't sleep on your own."

"An issue with nothing of importance for you to worry about," He said.

"You have quite the smart tongue at the wee hours in the morning," I snapped at him as I looked back into his eyes strongly. He stared at me with a sliver of apprehensiveness. That sliver disappeared as quickly as it came, as all his emotions usually did. In our smouldering staring contest, I felt his cool fingertips sliding up the bare skin over my spine.

"Get your hand out of my shirt."

"I'm not doing what you think I am," He said, keeping his cool stare on me. As a spark shivered down my spine, my vision cleared and the fuzzy reception I constantly had of Itachi's thoughts disappeared.

"Why did you break the seal?" I whispered, imploring him with my eyes.

"Things are...getting out of hand," He whispered back as he turned around to face the wall. I turned the other way and we lay back to back until we both fell asleep.

VVVVVV

**A/N: **A Merry late Christmas to all my readers! I was meaning to post up this new chapter on Christmas day as a surprise to you all, but unfortunately it had to be post-poned. A huge writer's block decided to plop down in front of me right when I was ready to dig in a finish up this chapter. Please enjoy it! (:

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and messaged me very encouraging things. It really helps a lot to know that people are anticipating the next part! Please feel free to message me and tell my butt to hurry up with the updates, I don't bite!


	7. Chapter 7

**Uncanny Magnetism**

_Chapter Seven_

VVVVVV

Warning: Spoiler alert! Tobi's identity is revealed.

VVVVVV

I woke up facing my side of the room with a warm, chiseled chest flush against my back and a heavy arm draped around my waist. Itachi and I were positioned in a rather intimate way, and although our relationship was _completely platonic_ in my mind, the close proximity of our bodies was a seriously temptatious issue. I blinked several times to brush any useless thoughts away as Itachi's chest continued to rise and fall against my back at resting rate. As predicted, the rain was still falling outside which explained why the Uchiha was fast asleep. Lately he has been a rather heavy sleeper and slept until noon. The sun (if it were not covered by the looming clouds) would have just risen by this time of day. I slowly peeled Itachi's arm off, extra cautious of not waking up the usually light sleeper. He did not stir. After a quick visit to the wash room, I gathered my finished books and head towards the library again.

"Fucking old ass doors!" I growled between gritted teeth. After a tormenting amount of maneuvering and twisting the faulty, brass knob of the old wooden doors, they opened from the other side. I dropped all of my books in surprise.

"It's been a while since this library has been touched up for its...faulty kinks," Tobi mumbled as he caressed the frayed edges of the oak doors.

"Oh, sorry I made a bit of a mess! You just took me by surprise a bit," I said, voice squeaking several decibels higher. I bent down to gather the dropped books.

"Allow me," Tobi said, halting me by the shoulders.

"Th-thanks, Tobi."

"Good choice of reading," He said while inspecting "Pride and Prejudice," my nightmare novel. He turned around and walked inside. I took that as a cue to follow him. He made his way around the circular room, re-shelving the books that I had taken out last afternoon. I trailed behind him, resuming the savoring of textured book spines with my fingertips. Some were bound with supple leather, others with gritty linen. Books did something to me. They put me in a trance as well as a sensory overload. If there were anything that came close to the thrill of exploring the human anatomy, books would be it.

"Oh, shit. I-I'm so sorry," I stuttered, barely releasing the words from my mouth as I bumped into Tobi's back for the second time. Strangely, he didn't turn around as I had expected him to. "Tobi?" I asked, reaching forward to tap his shoulder. I hesitated and retracted my hand. I didn't know why, but something stopped me from touching this man. I had a gut feeling.

"Why did you stop?" Tobi turned around to face me. Even though his face was covered by a mask and his eye was shadowed by the single opening, something about him made me uneasy.

"W-what?" I stammered, baffled by his response. I averted my eyes and I could feel my face heating up. Tobi was the only person I knew that could put me off in this state. I was clumsy and stuttered almost as much as Hinata did. My first impression of Tobi was a carefree and childish boy. In fact, I even doubted that he was an S-classed ninja in Akatsuki. After his personality completely turned around, I felt a vibe of danger and mystery emmanating from him.

"You remind me so much of her," He sighed, turning around casually and continuing to reshelve the books.

_What?!_ I screamed in my head. My heart was still pounding from the intense atmosphere which loomed in the air just a few seconds ago.

"Rin." He stopped again, shelving the last book. The name had a familiar ring, but I couldn't quiet put my finger on it.

"W-who?" I could feel myself quivering and immediately straightened myself out.

"Kind, devoted, and strong-willed," He said as he came closer to me, "the lover of your sensei." I cringed at his proximity. I remembered Kakashi's story. Rin was the girl who implanted a teammate's sharingan into his eye-socket. However, I struggled to remember the third teammate's name. It started with an 'O.'

"O...Obito," I accidentally mused out loud.

"Bingo." Tobi lifted his mask. A sense of shock took over my body. I did not expect Tobi to reveal who he was, nor did I purposely try to discover his identity. "I knew you were the one when you first came into the base. You were so much like her, I decided to see for myself." Tobi seemed to lean in closer with each word. I was already leaning against the shelves. "I knew you would come back, Rin."

"M-my name is Sakura," I tried to say as strongly as I could.

"Or should I say...reincarnation of Rin?" He tilted my chin up with his fingers. I gulped and could feel my heart rate increasing. I couldn't lean any further back. In this close distance, I could see that he clearly had both of his eyes. In deeper observation with my medic eyes, both of his sharingan eyes were intact. _Impossible_. I thought. _Wasn't he crushed to death in the first place? Also, one of his eyes is in Kaka-sensei's body…_

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" I blurted out. His breath was hot on my mouth and our lips were barely brushing.

"Always the observant one." Tobi, or rather Obito, pulled back and smirked. "Maybe you've heard the rumours about Uchiha Madara still being alive, disguising himself with an orange mask. He was the one who saved me from the brink of death, so I did him a favour by keeping his image alive." So, he was manipulative. He lived all these years having people speculate that he was someone else.

"How do you still have both sharingan?" I blurted out again. _Idiot!_ I mentally hit myself on the forehead. I knew little of Uchiha Madara from my stalker days of researching on the Uchiha family in hopes of finding out more about Sasuke. Those days were over. More importantly, I needed to learn how to restore Itachi's eyes.

"Hn, and why would you need that information?" He cocked his head to the side with a devious look glinting in his eyes. "Still trying to save Itachi's eyes?"

I couldn't respond, knowing that he had read my mind. I was still frozen in shock in everything that had just happened in the past few minutes.

"As witty as you are, I'm surprised you haven't realized that the only thing that kept you here was that seal Uchiha placed on you. Since it has been lifted, I wonder why you haven't made a run?" He sighed and brushed his hair back.

The truth was that I didn't know why I still wanted to help Itachi. Something was just keeping me from leaving him. Maybe it was just how helpless he was right now that moved me not to.

"But, you were always the compassionate one, putting others first. I admired that about you," He continued on. Obito's eyes seemed far away. When he spoke to me, it wasn't to Sakura, but rather to Rin. I realized that I had an advantage.

"You...loved me, right?" I looked up into his dark eyes. My words definitely struck a chord.

His eyes softened as he brushed my hair back with his fingers. "I still do," he said, leaning in.

I stiffened again. I wasn't sure how I was going to pull off pretending that I believed I was Rin's reincarnation.

"What happened after I extracted your eye?" I placed a hand on his cheek, hoping it would be a more convincing act and also trying to keep him from leaning any closer.

"You put it in Kakashi. It was a shame. I wasted my precious eye on that loser," He chuckled.

_Damn it! I asked a stupid question! Of course that would be the answer! Think fast, Sakura._

"Obito, I want to be my old self again. Tell me more about myself. About us."

Obito seemed to hesistate a bit, as if thinking of a plan before leaning in until I felt his breath on my mouth again. "We were in love," He mumbled against my lips before capturing them with his own. My body stiffened once again. In the split second that I was stiff, I melted into his kiss, playing off my reluctance. _Lies. Kaka-sensei and Rin were in love. I knew he went to her grave every day. That was the only soft part of his heart that he would reveal to me. Then again, I wondered why Kaka-sensei would tell such a thing to me?_

I could feel his hands wandering up my shirt, resting on my bare waist. His lips were beginning part mine open.

I pushed him away. "I-I'm not ready for that yet," I averted my eyes, face heating up. I had just experienced my first kiss at nineteen with a man ten years older than me. He was Kaka-sensei's age and the thought disconcerted me. In fact, I was doing this all for Itachi's sake. _What is wrong with me?_

"You will be, soon," Obito said, fixing his mask back on in place before walking out the door. I slid to the carpeted ground, buried my face into my knees and cried.

VVVVVV

"Oh, you're up," I said, closing the door behind me. I wiped the wet strands of hair framing my face with a fresh towel. The sun was already setting behind the dark clouds. I had spent a decent amount of time trying to splash away the blotchy, red evidence with cold water. Itachi seemed to be staring at me for longer than usual. It ticked me off. "What's wrong with you?" I glared back at him.

"Nothing," he said, turning his gaze back to the stone floor.

_Is everyone here acting weirder, or is it just me?! _I stood staring at Itachi a little longer before I walked over to the desk and draped my towel over the chair. I was beginning to question my own sanity. I wasn't sure why I was helping Itachi, especially since there were no strings attached any longer.

"There is a way to restore your eyes. Just...give me time to figure it out," I grit my teeth, unconsciously gripping the towel as well. _How much longer will I be able to put up with Obito? Until I get him to tell me how he fixed his sharingan, I guess. I never quit half-way._

"I thought you would have left by now."  
"What?" I turned towards him in disbelief. The room fell silent as I stood staring at him. I contemplated giving him a reason, but even I didn't even know why I was continuing to help him. "It's my job," I muttered before getting into my own cot. Things were changing rapidly and I could not put the pieces together. There hasn't been anything as wildly insane to compare to what I was feeling inside right now. Not even during the extent of time that I was "mildly obsessed" with Sasuke's life. This was entirely different. I was giving up everything for something that I did not even understand.

"I'm so tired." I felt Itachi sliding into bed behind me.

"Sleep, Sakura." His words reverberated in my ears. He wrapped his arms around me as I cried to sleep. I felt weak.

_How far will I have to go with Obito?_

VVVVVV

**A/N 1/12/12: **Meh, I tried a cliffhanger, but alas I suck! I feel like writing is getting harder and harder. It is so difficult to get the characters to express exactly what I want them to! Please hang in there with me… (: Also, Happy New Year beloved readers! Thank you for everyone that reviewed and PMed me. I am extremely blessed to have faithful readers! Thank you for keeping up with this fanfic, and I am so sorry that I take a long time to update. I am a college student after all, so please excuse me. In the meantime, please know that I am working hard to update this story as much as I can! Until next time! (:


	8. Chapter 8

**Uncanny Magnetism**

_Chapter Eight_

VVVVVV

**A/N 1/13/12 Please read me! xo**: For **_extra special_** reasons, I shall be placing my author's note at the beginning. (: Thank you everyone who left a review for chapter seven (as well as everyone who has been checking in with me through PMs and reviews!). I actually went "Kyaaa!" when I saw reviews and PMs the hour immediately after I uploaded chapter seven. Childish, but it shows how much I really value feedback from my lovely readers! (: I feel really encouraged to keep up my writing pace as unfortunately, I am terrible at updating on time. I feel like this entire story is getting extremely complicated and again, it is very hard for me to describe scenes the way I would prefer them to be translated to you. Please continue leaving me feedback through reviews and even PMing me. As you can see, I have many follows and favorites, but lack reviews. If it isn't too much to ask, please leave me a review so I may know how to improve my story for **you**, the reader! I love getting messages, and I will most definitely respond a.s.a.p! An extra thank you to those who have PMed me an reminded me to hurry up! xx

VVVVVV

"Haha! Screw you, you rotten piece of ass!" I grinned as I wiped my bloody arm across the front of my shirt. I had just drilled my chakra-infused arm through one of Kakuzu's four elemental hearts, ending an intensive spar. I figured out recently through endless amounts of spars with various members of the Akatsuki that I could warp the chakra scalpel into something as deadly as the Rasengan or Chidori.

"Hn, not bad. Remember to go get me another heart." Immediately, his threads stitched the open cavity in his chest and he was seemingly unfazed.

"Mind if I studied those some time? I promise I don't do experimental bull-shit like Orochimaru does," I said while wiping my sweaty forehead with my unbloodied arm.

"Fuck, if I cared. Do whatever you want," he said in his usual, arrogant tone. He turned around, heading back towards the base, I liked Kakuzu. He never seemed to give a care in the world, but his actions proved different. His entire life was an expression of ironic sarcasm. It was entertaining.

"Wow! I didn't think you'd agree, cheapskate. I was thinking you would have charged me a fee or something!" I said, exaggerating my words as I caught up with him.

"Now, that's a good idea," he smirked behind his face mask and to my surprise even winked, "Afterall, it is my body I'm giving up."

"Fuck, no! I'm broke. Only you of all you perverts would expect a captive to have pennies up her ass!"

"Beats me. You do room with that weasel," he chuckled, "Maybe I should take your bed out and sell it."

"Go to hell, Kakuzu," I growled, trudging ahead of him. _I am _**_not_**_ a prostitute!_ I continued trudging ahead, muttering under my breath until I was stopped in my tracks.

"S-Sasuke?" I breathed, speechless. By the time I noticed him in the shadows of the trees, he had disappeared.

"What did you say, kunobitchy?" Kakuzu said as he came up behind me. I was used to being called that by most of the Akatsuki. It was endearing, I guess. At least they treated me as an equal.

"Nothing, I'm just seeing things," I muttered as I continued forward. _Living for months with criminals must have driven me completely mental._

"Whatever you say," He said, walking past me into the base. I scurried in after him.

"Hey, Kakuzu?" I asked, peering up at him as we walked through tunnels.

"Hm?"

"Why haven't you guys killed me yet?" I mentally kicked myself. _I ask such stupid questions some times…_

"Because you're valuable. Worth more than money," he said casually.

"It's been months and I haven't even fixed Itachi's eyes. I'm less than shit if that's what I was brought here for," I said gloomly, slouching and slowing my pace.

"Always so honest," he chuckled, stopping at his door, "Leader's call. What he says goes. Managing to get one of my hearts? That's pretty impressive to me."

"It's been-" I paused, stopping to count my fingers, "-three months since I was kidnapped here, and I don't even know who your leader is!" I shouted just as Kakuzu shut his door.

"Sucks for you," I heard Kakuzu's muffled voice say through the door.

VVVVVV

A week had passed by since my last encounter with Obito. When I bumped into Deidara after walking past Kakuzu's room, he had notified me that Tobi had embarked on a mission trip. My shoulders relaxed a bit. However, there was no telling how long he would take.

"Ugh, blood is so disgusting," I grit my teeth, scrubbing Kakuzu's blood off of my arm. Strangely, his blood was rather different than the regular human's blood. It was thicker. I would have to ask him for a blood sample when I had the chance to study him.

"A strange thing to say for a medic." I jumped a bit at the voice and raised my head from the sink to look at the reflection in the scratched mirror. A blush immediately crept over my skin. I had stripped down to my bindings and my training shorts to do a quick rinse over what was exposed to blood during the sparring session. I quickly snapped my head back down to the sink and scrubbed even more vigorously in embarrassment.

"It would be nice if you actually knocked once in a while," I seethed, splashing soapy water onto the tiled ground as I scrubbed. I heard a bit of scuffling behind me near the cabinets as I slowed down my scrubbing fury.

"Who made that rule?" Arms wrapped around me, taking hold of my hands.

"What do you think you're doing Uchi-" I was turned around and pushed onto the wet ground.

"A favor," he mumbled, getting up and wetting a wash cloth with warm, soapy water. He knelt down in front of me and began dabbing gently at the caked blood on my arms. I felt strange and wasn't sure what to do or say.

"I never asked for one, stupid," I huffed, turning my head away.

"Hn," he said with his trademark Uchiha smirk. I observed him from the corners of my eyes, wincing at each bruise he pressed on. In fact, he seemed to be pressing on every single one that covered my arms. I pulled my arm away and took his face in my wet hands.

"Can you see?" I said in a shocked whisper, medic eyes darting around every nanometer of his.

"Hn, I thought you were more observant, Haruno," his breath fanned hotly against my lips with each word.

My shoulders hitched when I realized how close I was to him and I pushed his face away. "How long has your vision been this clear?" I probed, eyes reluctant to meet his. I stared at the soapy water dripping off the tarnished porcelain sink instead.

"A week."

Gathering a bit of courage, I reactivated my medic eyes again and searched deeper into his optic nerve. His eyes looked like completely normal ones, minus the sharingan structure. "Has your vision consistently been recovering since you lost it?"

"Yes," He murmered, tucking stray strands of hair behind me ear.

I flinched a bit as his actions reminded me of Obito brushing my hair back, but this time, the gesture actually felt nice. I shrugged off the feeling as I continued my work. "Looks like your eyes are completely normal. I think the disturbance caused by me prodding the nerve with my own chakra charged it up. Thus, creating a slow chain reaction of...I guess reactivation. But, that's just it. Your eyes are normal eyes and nothing more, sadly."

Itachi's finger tips continued to linger around my jawline.

_We share a professional doctor-patient relationship. That's it._ I chewed the inside of my cheek nervously as I checked for any mistakes in natural recovery.

"They will do for now." His voice had sweet, mellow notes even though it was rather deep and rich. It reminded me of the smell of pine.

"There will be a way to get them back." I deactivated my medic eyes, but Itachi's hand was still there. I felt my cheeks flush a bit. I cleared my throat and rose to my feet. "I'd like a little privacy to get dressed, Uchiha." My head really seemed to like turning to the side around him. Perhaps it was a newfound disease: Persistent head aversion disorder.

There seemed to be a light glimmer in his aura as he rose and made his way out the door.

"By the way, Haruno, there seems to be forecasted thunderstorms tonight," he said before shutting the door behind him. My shoulders hitched a little at his comment. Brushing it off, I proceeded to unwind my sopping wet bindings.

VVVVVV

I yawned, stretching my stiff joints which made resounding cracks in the empty library. I had just spent a solid two hours scraping through book after book on the Sharingan. I was happy to discover that the library offered a decent amount of help to me in its old shelves. I got up from the cozy chair, knees wobbling a bit from the prolonged inactivity. Carrying the hefty stack of books I had managed to pull from the shelves back to their place proved challenging. As I was placing the third book back in its place, I could hear the familiar low groan of the doors opening. I jumped, dropping the entire stack on the ground in front of me which barely missed my toes. I was frozen in place, fearful of who it may be. The footsteps began approaching me at a slow, agonizing pace. I decided to keep myself busy by bending down and gathering the books again. Of course, whenever I was nervous I was always in an absolute wreck. My fingers could barely grip the heavy books due to the sheer amount of sweat my hands produced. _Great, I must have clammy doctor hands. No one ever likes that. _The footsteps ceased behind me. _Wait, the chakra signature is different_. In my nervousness, I was careless enough to forget to read the chakra of the person approaching me. I let out a breath in relief that it was not Obito. A hand reached down to grab a book.

"Haruno-san?" The voice spoke.

"Y-yes?" I stammered, turning my head over my shoulder in my crouching position. I was met with a set of purple-ringed eyes, facial piercings, and a head of flaming hair. I struggled to rise to my feet with the heavy stack of books in my arms. He steadied me with a firm grip on my elbow. "Thanks," I smiled as warmly as I could.

"I didn't mean to surprise you, Haruno-san." His voice was deep and authoritative––fit for a leader.

"O-oh, no. It's no problem!" I grinned sheepishly. "Um, you wouldn't happen to be the leader of the Akatsuki, would you?"

"Pardon my rudeness of forgetting to introduce myself. Yes, you may have heard others refer to me as 'Leader-sama,' but please do call me 'Pein.' I would liked that very much." Pein kept a straight face no matter how his inflection was as he spoke. I found that rather intimidating.

"I'm glad to finally be able to meet you, Pein." His name rolled off my tongue quite awkwardly. By this time I was struggling with my books and he clearly noticed it.

"Let me help you with those," he said, taking the stack before I could respond.

"Thank you, again," I practically whispered.

"I've heard very special things about you." He was shelving the books as I awkward trailed behind him.

He was really straight-forward and a step ahead in every situation. His personality threw me off balance. "Oh?" I responded, not knowing what else to say.

"You're one of the few people who know the true face of Tobi. You must be very important to be able to hold such valuable information."

"I'm assuming you're one of them." _Bold statement, idiot. _I thought as I internally smacked my forehead with my palm.

He stopped shelving the books and turned toward me. "Yes, and I assume you know that it is not I who is the leader of the Akatsuki, but rather Tobi. I am merely a vessel to carry out his commands."

"Uh, no. I actually didn't know that." My eyes widened at the new fact. "Then, what are Tobi's true intentions with this organization?"

Pein made his way towards the doors. "I can only disclose information that I am allowed to, Haruno-san. I'm certain that you are aware of what privacy is. It was nice to meet you, Haruno-san." He smiled and left the room, leaving me baffled.

I spent a couple minutes gathering myself together after the strange encounter with Pein. I listened as his soft footsteps faded away. The Akatsuki were only keeping me alive here because I was valuable, as Kakuzu had mentioned. I was valuable to Obito as Rin.

_Keeping up my role as Rin is even more important now if I don't want my neck to me wrung._ I swallowed before making my way out through the doors. I shuddered as I exited to tunnel to make my way across the open area towards the tunnel that led to my room. The stone head with two open-palmed hands always unnerved me. _I wonder what it's for_. My footsteps echoed through the various tunnels as I made my way across the empty area. I stopped when I heard another pair of footsteps making their way through the base entrance. They were slow and heavy, almost as if the person were dragging themselve across the stone floor. It was Obito. I could hear him breathing heavily against his mask. His breathing was ragged and his brown hair was mussed as if he had just escaped a fight. I wasn't sure why, but my feet began moving on their own closer to his crumpled over form. He was bleeding heavily from a gaping wound on his abdomen. _This could be my chance, maybe even my only chance to take his eyes from him. _When I approached his dying form, an awful feeling wrenched in my gut. I felt guilty. Before I knew it, I was laying him on the cool, stone ground. My hands worked on their own, healing the mess on his body. His flesh was charred and the wound was circular with jagged edges. No doubt it was a flaming ball of electricity: the Chidori.I removed his mask so I could read his expressions as I drilled him with questions.

"I doubt that you had any business with Sasuke. What were you doing with Kaka-sensei?" I paused my healing, hesitating on whether I should proceed with healing him. But, the gut-wrenching feeling came on again and my hands immediately found their place on the still bleeding wound.

A low gurgle came from Obito's throat, which I assumed was a chuckle. "What has he done to deserve such an endearing pet name?" His lids were heavy, but the life that was nearly gone before began to come back to a slight flicker in his crimson eyes.

"Answer me, Obito," I said, pressing firmly on his wound.

He winced at the expertly applied pressure. Beads of sweat were forming on his brow from the pain. "I simply went to visit him. He went a bit mad when he learned that you were with me."

"You didn't hurt him, did you?" I glanced over at his face again, which was contorting slightly less.

"No. Again, as I have said before, I simply went to visit my dear friend is all." Something about his wording was suspicious to me. By the time I closed off the wound, my arms were drenched up to the elbows with blood.

"Did you hurt anyone else?" I questioned. Obito lay on the ground staring at the ceiling, mouth pressed into a thin line.

"Would you think of me any differently if I did?" He turned his head towards me, a calm look in his tired eyes.

"Did you hurt anyone else, Obito," I demanded this time rather than questioned.

"I went to retrieve the last Jinchuuriki," he said, turning his gaze back towards the ceiling.

_Naruto_.

"You're a monster," I spat.I removed my hands from his healed wound. As I was about to stand up, he reached over and placed a firm grip around my wrist.

"Don't leave, Sakura."

I debated whether I should leave, but considered the fact that he acknowledged me by who I really was. I crouched down again.

"Why are you doing this?" A tone of plea laced my voice.

"For you. For us. For our loved ones. The world is a cruel place, and with a new one made with the power of the jinchuuriki, things would finally be perfect."

"Naruto is my friend." I looked at him before getting up and leaving him laying on the ground.

VVVVVV

I burst into the Sasori's little laboratory of a room, arms dripping with Obito's blood. "I need to request a favor from you, Sasori."

"That was quite the entrance, Haruno," he said, eyeing the blood that was dripping off of my elbows. "Favors come with a price."

"I just need a couple test tubes. I'm in a hurry. Please," I begged trying to save anymore blood form dripping to the ground.

"Test tubes are costly. You are aware as a medic, hm?" His grin told me that he was plotting something.

"We'll discuss favor exchanges in a minute, just give me a dang tube!" I shouted. I really wanted to kick him in the face, but I couldn't risk dropping anymore of the blood on the ground.

"Fine," he said, rolling his eyes and dangling a test tube in my face.

"Open the top for me, quick."

"Quite demanding now, aren't you?" He popped the top open, continuing to eye me in my frenzy.

"Thanks," I said, using chakra to coax the crimson liquid neatly off my arms into the tube. "Damn it. There's not enough. This will do, I guess." I was able to obtain one full test tube of Obito's blood. At the last minute, I figured that it would serve some use in helping Itachi gain his Sharingan back.

"Now, I wonder what poor soul you took away in order to get that blood," Sasori smirked.  
"I didn't kill anyone," I said, narrowing my eyes at him. "So, what kind of favor did you want from me?

Sasori contemplated, tapping his chin with his pale and slender finger. "There are so many ideas, I could hardly choose," he smiled slyly.

"Well, fucking choose. I don't have all the time in the world," I shot at him.

"I'll make this as painful as possible," he tilted his head in a sardonic gesture. "Since I can't make you into one of my dolls, you can serve me for a week. In fact, Obaa-san used you as her living doll the first time we met. I'll be taking you on a mission trip with me as my living doll."

I grimaced. Being a living doll didn't exactly fly with me.

"Well, I have priorities. In fact, if you let me use your little lab right here for a couple days, I'll let you extend that time if you would like."

"Sounds reasonable. Didn't think you would comply so quickly. Smart girl."

"It's for an important cause," I said, placing the test tube of blood on a rack.

VVVVVV

**A/N 1/15/12**: And the plot unravels! Please review my lovely readers! (: I want to know what you think is going to happen to that bottle of blood! I am going back to college tonight and will have a busy week. If I am taking too long with updates again, please nudge me with a PM! I will use all the spare time I can to write! Until next time (;


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